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Government Operations committee  Thank you for inviting me. I've enjoyed the experience.

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  There are about 40 votes in total each year to vote upon, which is not very different from the number of departments we have. Each of those vote areas might include three or four output classes within them. In some cases there may be only one output class, depending upon the size

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  I think it makes more sense. I think there must be a natural tendency for the two to grow together. After all, if one defines a particular output that the public sector needs to produce, then there is a presumption in a sense that it will be produced by a particular department.

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  They do. Major policy announcements made in the budget will include expenditure to implement those policy announcements if the planning has proceeded far enough to enable that to be done. If it hasn't, the announcement might be made in the budget but a supplementary estimate will

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  I think budget secrecy is overstated as an impediment. I think what budget secrecy is intended to do is to protect against anybody learning what policy is being proposed and then cashing in on it by speculating in a way that is effectively fraudulent on insider knowledge. I certa

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  I'll watch out for her.

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  In New Zealand we were very lax until about 1990 in our timetabling of the budget. In 1990 we introduced a new system. Our financial year starts on July 1 every year and runs until June 30. The legal requirement is that the budget must be presented to Parliament within 30 days of

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  The budget date is announced in about March for a May budget. The government tells Parliament when budget day will be.

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  There's a standard set of questions that have been drawn up by finance committees in the past, but any other member might add particular questions to the questionnaire. One of the things that committees are very interested in is the use of consultants—the extent to which depart

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  The questionnaire is usually sent out as soon as the budget date is known. The answers are expected to be delivered back to the committee the day after budget day. You can have up to two months to work on it. It's often quite a reasonable period of time for departments to prepare

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  It's very difficult, I think, to trace an expenditure authority into an actual implementation during the course of the year. Parliamentarians, of course, do ask questions of ministers during the course of the year. They have the ability to call in officials and to examine them, b

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  Yes, I could. One of the offices is very important to the parliamentary process of considering expenditure approvals. There are three officers of Parliament in New Zealand. The oldest is the ombudsman, the office that I hold, which is traditional ombudsman work in terms of look

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  Well, I would only recommend a change to another parliamentary system with a great deal of trepidation. I don't know enough about your system to suggest any specific changes. For instance, I know you have a parliamentary budget office. In New Zealand we do not have a parliament

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  You are correct that our estimates are divided by sectors rather than by departments, but they generally coincide with individual departments. Some departments have responsibility for more than one vote and some departments' votes are contained in a part of another vote. Some of

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee

Government Operations committee  It is reconciled by the political reality that a government, if it is to remain in government, will have a majority in the legislature to deny any proposals for increases and expenditures it doesn't agree with. That means what the majority of the government manages to put togethe

April 4th, 2012Committee meeting

David McGee